THE day starts as early as 9.30 am for Wilf, Daisy, Bella, Bailey, Sue and Clif.
The first order of business for them is to relieve themselves at their designated areas before embarking on a busy day of training.
They will then be on standby to assist in any operations that require their services.
Depending on weather conditions, their one-hour training session will begin at 10.30 am where they will wear their harnesses which indicates that they are at work.
Coming from the United Kingdom (UK), the six are not too fond of hot weather.
The four English Springer Spaniel, a Labrador and a Border Collie are canine (K9) dogs attached to the State Fire and Rescue Department (BOMBA).
Contrary to common image of K9 breeds like German Shepherd, Malinois, Bloodhound, and Rottweilers, they are friendly, adorable as well as hyperactive – most importantly, they were trained to help and rescue people.
Since 2018, the K9 dogs have been fulfilling their roles and responsibilities to look after Sarawak diligently – from January to July this year, their services have been requested and needed in over 26 operations statewide.
According to handler Steven Ambu, training sessions are usually conducted three to four times a week to keep the K9 dogs fit and ready for operations.
“After the training sessions, we would be on standby to assist in operations.
“The K9 dogs eat once a day, their feeding time is at 3.30pm – they have a specific diet plan, so the portion given is based on the weight and size of each dog.
“In the evening around 6.30pm, we would take them to relieve themselves before setting them up in their kennel for the night.
“We would switch on the lights and fan as well as put on the mosquito repellent,” he said.
The handlers will spend time to groom their respective K9 dogs and it is part of the bonding routine.
Steven said the handlers would do communal work to clean the K9 kennels and areas every Friday.
“We want to ensure the surrounding areas are always clean. If the grasses are too long, we will cut it to avoid attracting venomous animals,” he said.
When the K9 dogs’ assistance are required, handler Peter Huang said specific gears and equipment are needed.
He said the different disciplines, namely fire investigation, cadaver, and wilderness have their own gears and equipment for the K9 dogs.
Once the harness is put on, he said it is a trigger indicating that it is time for the K9 dogs to get down to work.
“For the fire investigation discipline, the dogs would wear boots to protect their paws. This is to prevent injuries from sharp or metal debris from the buildings razed by fire.
“As for the cadaver discipline, the dogs would wear a harness that has a life jacket when they go on search and rescue (SAR) operations involving water.
“The K9 dogs from the wilderness discipline would have a harness on as well to ensure they do not roam too far from their handlers,” he said.
Peter said the handlers have a pouch to store items like tennis balls which will be given to the K9 dogs as a treat once they have completed their tasks.
Considering BOMBA Sarawak only has six K9 dogs for three disciplines, he said there are some challenges when they are deployed for operations.
He said the operation in Belaga was one of the furthest they had travelled to considering the K9 unit is stationed in Serian.
“Operations that are far and require hours of traveling by road are quite tough, especially for dogs that are afraid – it may be an unpleasant experience for them.
“We must make several stops along the way to check on them and to ensure they are not distressed.
“Some dogs enjoy car rides while others get distressed and they would stand throughout the journey which tires them out,” he said.
Sharing his experience with his previous K9 dog named Rosco in Peninsular Malaysia, Peter said Rosco would often be distressed throughout the traveling journey – by the time they reached the destination, he would be feeling down and did not want to work.
He said the handlers would have to coax their dogs by having some play time and giving the tennis ball treat to cheer them up.
“This is one of the challenges that we face, so we must understand our dogs’ behaviours and characteristics.
“We would only begin to work once the dogs have cheered up,” he said.
Peter said the K9 unit travels quite frequently in which the cadaver and wilderness disciplines would be involved for four to seven days in SAR operations.
The success rate for detecting accelerant in fire cases is high for the K9 dogs in fire investigation discipline.
“This is because the fire investigation discipline’s area to work on is small compared to the cadaver and wilderness disciplines,” he said.
Another handler, Dennis Augustine Nassim hoped the K9 unit could be expanded statewide, considering that Sarawak is the largest state in the country.
He said this is a dream that the pioneering batch shares and wishes to see come true.
“We hope to see the addition of more personnel and K9 dogs as well as assets like vehicle sin this unit because Sarawak is a large area to take care of.
“We also hope to see the K9 unit to be established in different parts of the state so that the traveling distance would not be too far,” he said.
